The Son of Iron Man
by Doragonsureiya
Summary: Tony Stark and the Avengers grow old and weary. Soon will be the day when the world can no longer rely on them to protect it, but before that day comes the Avengers have a plan: to teach the next generation how to follow their footsteps and become superheroes themselves. Follow Toby Stark, the son of Iron Man, as he learns to control the power he is gifted and save us all.
1. Chapter 1: The New Generation

**The Son of Iron Man**

**Right, I know it's been a while since I've written anything, but I'm Back in Black from the Highway to Hell. I will Shoot to Thrill while spilling Whiskey on the Rocks. You guys are going to be Thunderstruck by this new story. OK, I'll stop making AC/DC references now.**

**Anyway, this will follow the inevitable time when Tony Stark hangs up the suit and passes on his legacy to his son, Toby (because that's a super-clever name). Now Toby Stark must master the new suit his father helped him build while managing his school life and trying not to let his friends slip away from him. And on top of it all, Tony Stark's enemies – as well as some of Toby's own – are content to destroy Iron Man no matter who is in the suit.**

**It's a good job Toby's best friend – Ben Parker, the Amazing Spider-Boy – is there to help.**

**One quick note about language: while Toby and the others are indeed American, I am English and therefore they will call mothers 'mum' and so on. It's just easier for me. So, if it helps, just imagine they're saying 'mom.'**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter One: The New Generation<strong>

An unceasing buzzing forced open the blue eyes of the sleeping boy. With a yawn, he sat up slowly and looked at the glowing green numbers on the clock. He pressed the button which silenced the machine and crossed the room to his wardrobe, where he picked out a black AC/DC shirt and jeans for the day.

Downstairs, the boy walked into the living room of Stark Tower and was greeted by his mother, Pepper Potts-Stark.

"Morning, Toby," Pepper called to her son as she sat at the bar, reading a magazine and sipping from a drink.

"Morning, mum. Where are dad and the other Avengers?" Toby Stark asked, looking first around the room and then out of the panoramic glass walls to see New York City bustling about its business.

"Your father got a call earlier this morning about some villain. Nothing he and the others can't handle," Pepper told him.

"Huh. You know when he'll be back?" Toby asked, unfazed by the thought of his father going off to fight who knows what. It was, after all, a common occurrence.

"Well, the last I heard he was in Spain. Perhaps tomorrow?" Pepper suggested. "I really don't know. Hey, ready for school?"

"I think the real question is whether school is ready for me. Did I tell you about IT yesterday?" Toby asked.

"When you corrected the teacher so many times he let you take over?"

"That's the one. I don't think he thought I'd actually do it, but everyone said I taught better than he did," Toby said with a smug grin.

"Well, don't let that go to your head. You're a smart boy, but no one likes a show-off," Pepper said half-jokingly.

"Clearly that's not true; you married dad, didn't you?" Toby chuckled, his mother joining in.

"Wow, look at the time!" Pepper exclaimed as she glanced at the clock. "Get some breakfast; there's toast on the table or cereal in the cupboard."

"Right. Wouldn't want to be late for teaching the teachers," Toby quipped as he turned away from the window and crossed to the dining table.

Half an hour later, Toby found himself in tutor period with his friend Benjamin Parker at Midtown High School. They got along well because they were both intelligent young men with genius fathers.

"So, Toby, I heard your dad's out of town," Ben said.

"Yep. He's out with the Avengers, fighting some bad guy or another. What about yours?" Toby asked.

"Shh! Not here!" Ben shushed him.

"Right, sorry," Toby said, lowering his voice.

"It's fine. Just save it for the next time I'm round the Tower," Ben said.

"Yeah. What's our first lesson, again?" Toby asked, trying to change the subject.

"IT again," Ben answered. "Should be interesting, if yesterday is anything to go by."

"Yeah, I wonder if Mr Farnett will even bother trying to teach us today, or whether he'll just hand the class straight over to me," Toby laughed.

"Personally, I'd rather learn from the best. And by that I mean the second option," Ben said.

"Well, we'd better go. Don't want to be late to class," Toby said as the bell rang. He stood up and put on his backpack before walking with Ben to their IT class.

"Now," said Mr Farnett as his class sat in front of him at their desks. "To create a pull-down list in Access you go to Design View, and then…"

"I know all this already," Toby whispered to Ben.

"I know, right?" Ben agreed. "Why don't they ever teach us anything useful?"

"Toby Stark! Ben Parker!" Mr Farnett suddenly exclaimed. "I trust what you're talking about is suitable for the whole class to hear?"

"Certainly, sir," Toby said with a wink at Ben, who rolled his eyes.

"Here we go again," Ben sighed.

"Good, then would you like to share it?" Mr Farnett asked.

"If you want me to, but don't come crying to me when the Principal comes and replaces you with me," Toby said, eliciting a dagger-like stare from his teacher. He then stood up and moved to the front of the class. "I was just saying to Ben that there are more useful things we could learn in this lesson than how to make a database. Don't we all pretty much know this stuff?" The class nodded in agreement. "Why don't we learn how to, say, set up a server? Operate an AI program? My dad's figured out all this stuff by himself, but now we have this knowledge why don't we pass it on for a smarter America? For a better future?" The class was silent, admiring Toby's grit in challenging Mr Farnett.

"Kids this age are too young to learn such things," Mr Farnett said.

"I learned when I was twelve. We're all sixteen here; we'll be out in the world of work in only a few years, and some of us will be technicians, and engineers. How many technicians do you meet who don't know how to establish a secure server?" Toby challenged. "Let's ask the class, shall we? Hands up who wants to put pull-down lists into databases?" One hand flew upward. "And who wants to create a server?" A few hands went up, but not many. "What about creating a holographic virtual reality program?" All the hands, even those that had already gone up, were raised. "So, Mr Farnett, would you like to take over?" Toby asked the teacher, who stared dumbfounded around the room. "I thought not."

An hour later, Toby found himself in the principal's office.

"So, you took over Mr Farnett's class, threw out the syllabus and taught a group of High School students how to create a… virtual reality room?" the principal demanded.

"Well, I tried," Toby corrected him. "But it went way over their heads."

"I still don't believe you even tried. And from what I heard, you remained accurate," the principal said incredulously.

"Well, I'm Toby Stark," the boy said with a winning smile.

"Let's see what Tony Stark thinks of what you did today," the principal said, dialling a number into his phone.

"Yes, you go ahead and bother Iron Man while he's trying to save the world. Great plan," Toby said sarcastically.

"Oh. Well then, let's see what your mother thinks," the Principal said, redialling a different number. He then proceeded to explain over the phone what had happened to Pepper. Afterward, there was silence, and then Toby heard faint laughter on the other end.

"I'm sorry!" Pepper said, breathless with laughter. "He did what?!"

"He taught a High School class how to create a virtual reality room," the principal repeated. Pepper laughed again.

"Did he succeed?" she asked.

"No, but he did create a working miniature," the principal said.

"Very impressive!"

"Impressive?!" the principal exclaimed. "It's rebellious! He took over a classroom and disrespected the school syllabus! Mr Farnett has actually handed in his official resignation!"

"Well, what do you expect me to do? Students come to your school to learn, and if teachers can't help with that then why shouldn't Toby?"

"Mum's right," Toby agreed. "An educational facility that fears education? Historically not awesome."

"You stay out of this; your mother and I are discussing how to discipline you," the principal said to Toby. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Stark, you were saying?" But Pepper was gone. "Get back to class," the principal sighed. "But know this isn't over."

"It never will be…" Toby sighed to himself.

* * *

><p>After a long day at school, Toby returned home to Stark Tower.<p>

"Hey, mum!" Toby called out to the living room.

"Hello, Toby!" Pepper called back.

"Thanks for earlier," Toby said as he swung his bag off his back and tossed it into a corner.

"I didn't see anything to punish. In fact, I don't see why we even bother sending you to that school," Pepper said. "They can't teach you a thing there."

"I agree with you, there," Toby said, looking around. "Where are you?" he then added as he noticed Pepper wasn't in the room with him.

"In the medical room…" Pepper answered. "With your father."

**I was going to end this here, but it seemed so very short and I've been gone for such a very long time. So, that logic withstanding, I shall continue!**

"Dad?" Toby muttered as he saw Tony Stark lying shirtless on a table, Pepper dabbing at his wounded chest. Tony was breathing heavily, his greying hair dishevelled. "What happened?"

"We were fighting M.O.D.O.K. in Spain when he managed to hack my armour…" Tony spluttered, struggling to speak. "He used it against me; Thor only just managed to take it down before flying me back here. The others are still fighting M.O.D.O.K. back in Spain."

"And a mighty battle they shall fight, indeed!" boomed a voice from the corner. Thor emerged from the shadows where he had previously been hidden from Toby's sight. "Though I suspect they would benefit greatly from my aid." He then began to swing his hammer, Mjolnir, and aimed out the door toward the glass walls.

"Not the walls, not the walls!" Tony croaked, but it was too late. A loud crashing sound followed Thor's disappearance.

"Will you be alright?" Toby asked his father, concern in his voice.

"Of course I will, son, I'm a fighter. It'll take a lot more than that to take down the Invincible Iron Man," Tony said reassuringly.

"He's got some lacerations on his chest, but he'll be fine," Pepper added.

"Don't worry about me," Tony said finally. "You go and play, or whatever it is you do." Toby reluctantly left the room and went to call Ben round for a bit.

* * *

><p>"Toby!" called Pepper from the medical room. Toby sighed and paused his videogame before going to see what his mum wanted.<p>

"Your father wants to speak to you," Pepper told Toby when he entered the medical room. "Alone." She then left the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Toby alone with Tony.

"Toby, come here," Tony said to his son, who quickly crossed to the bed that Pepper had brought him for the night. "This injury has made me realise that my time left as Iron Man is running out."

"Dad, don't say that," Toby said.

"Why not? I'm not saying I'm going to die; just that I'm going to retire. Soon."

"You can't retire! The world needs you!" Toby protested.

"No, son… they need you." Toby didn't reply for a moment, though he knew precisely what his dad meant.

"You mean…?"

"It's time for you to take up the mantle of Iron Man," Tony said. "We'll start work on your suit tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Toby repeated.

"Tomorrow." Toby fell silent for a moment, an overwhelming mixture of emotions flowing through him. Fear and excitement were prevalent.

"Really?!" he asked.

"Yes. We'll have the whole weekend to work on it, which is plenty of time," Tony said with a smile.

"A new suit in a weekend?" Toby asked disbelievingly.

"Well, we have JARVIS, and I've got a whole mess of designs on the system. I have the materials here already, just in case," Tony said. Toby noticed he was struggling with his injuries considerably less than he had been earlier that afternoon. "So," Tony said, "are you in?" With an effort, he extended his hand.

"Sure," Toby said, struggling for an answer to fit what his father was asking of him.

"From tomorrow onward, Toby," his dad said, looking his son in the eye as he shook his hand. "You are Iron Man."

* * *

><p><strong>Wahey, I'm back! Are there any next generation superheroes you'd like to see here? We have Iron Man Jr. and the Amazing Spider-Boy. Whoever next? Private America? Mothi and Magni (the mythical sons of Thor)? Ooh, now there's an idea! If you have any such brainstorms, be sure to drop a review or a PM. Thanks.<strong>

**Stick around and see where this is going, I promise it'll be worth it. If not, I'll have Lil' Deadpool hunt me down. Ooh, there's another one!**


	2. Chapter 2: Mark One

**The Son of Iron Man**

**Some quick shout-outs before we begin:**

**Thank you to Johnwolf234 for suggesting a son/daughter of the character Lupos from my other story, Rise of the Cross-Species. That's a great idea, as far as I'm concerned… now all I need is a name. And to clarify for anyone who hasn't read that story, no it wasn't a weird love story between Peter and a naked wolf-man. Lupos, the wolf-man in question, started off as a science experiment in that story and quickly got some clothes, presumably from the place Hulk buys his: Indestructible Trousers R' Us. I can't remember whether I've actually written and published that part yet, but it does happen.**

**To OrangeEucalyptus I would like to give my thanks for your review. Personally, I'm not actually a fan of romantic stories. I don't mind it if it's a side-theme – this story may even have a splash of romance in it – but it appears your story is based entirely upon romance. I'm very sorry to say that it's really not my cup of tea. However, I do encourage anyone who does enjoy a bit of romance in their steamy beverage to have a look at it. If I'm wrong and it turns out to have an interesting plot, someone please inform me and I'll have a look.**

**Again, I apologise deeply for my lack of enthusiasm for what I'm sure is a great story for those who are interested in the genre. I hope this little note will help you on your way to being a great author.**

**Now to everyone:**

**Welcome back! In the last chapter, we met Toby Stark son of Tony Stark, endured a typical school day for him and then learned that the Invincible Iron Man has been injured for the last time and is planning to retire. What's more, Toby is due to take his place. Now, I'm sure you're as excited as I am to find out what happens next and just what Toby's new armour will be like. So, with no further ado, we begin!**

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><p><span><strong>Chapter Two: Mark I<strong>

"JARVIS, create a new project folder," Tony Stark said to his AI. Toby and Tony were in the latter's workshop, somewhere Toby was very rarely allowed to go. He looked around in wonder at all the advanced technology in the room, from the self-aware robotic hand to the half-finished suits that were scattered around.

"Wow!" he breathed.

"What would you like to call it, sir?" asked the synthetic upper-class voice of JARVIS, the AI of Stark Tower.

"How about Iron Kid?" Tony suggested, looking at Toby, who shook his head. "Fine, call it Iron Man 2."

"It is done, sir. Would you like to begin a new project?" JARVIS asked. Tony glanced at his son, marking the look of excitement on his face and savouring it.

"Yes. Call it Mark I." And so Toby's first suit design was created.

"Now," Tony said, sitting in a seat and swivelling round to face his son, who also sat in a similar seat. "Where do we begin? Are there any of my suit designs you want to use as a starting point?"

"Well, actually…" Toby began, looking around at the suits. "The MK. VI was one of my favourites."

"OK, then. JARVIS, bring up the designs for the Mark Six," Tony said, and a holographic screen opened up between the two showing the plans for the Mark VI suit. Tony immediately started to fiddle with the display, zooming it in and reminding himself of all the features. Toby sat idly watching as his father did what he did best. "So, we copy this and drag it onto your plan…" Tony said, dragging the whole design from one screen to another which opened up next to it. Toby pulled his chair next to his father, looking at the screen that was titled 'Mark One'.

"That should set up the key running components of the armour, but the weapons and thrusters might want updating. Any ideas, son?" Tony asked.

"Well the thrusters from the Mark II were probably some of your fastest. If we put some of those in the boots and perhaps simply keep the Mark VI's repulsors, I think that would work," Toby suggested.

"It wasn't the thrusters that made the Mark II fast; it was the lack of extra weight. However, if we factor in that your suit will weigh less than mine because you're not as heavy then the Mark II thrusters would probably be the best here. Good idea, Toby," Tony explained.

"Thanks," Toby said as his father pulled up a menu of past components and dragged the correct thrusters into the design.

"Naturally the suit will run on Vibranium and you'll have JARVIS installed," Tony said as he worked. "I hope you're paying attention; the next one's going to be all yours."

"I am, dad," Toby said truthfully. He really found this fascinating.

"Now, the original Mark VI had one-use wrist-lasers and a small complement of pod-missiles. We'll put on the upgraded laser system…" he dragged the Mark VII's lasers onto the wrists of the design, "but we'll probably have to keep the missiles the same. Anything else you'd like?"

"Sounds good to me. There's always the Mark II for anything else I want to add in," Toby said.

"Now you're thinking like a genius," Tony grinned. "So, we'll make the whole thing out of a gold/titanium alloy, as always. How would you like it to activate?"

"I'm sorry?" Toby questioned.

"Some of my suits fly to me, others unfold from a suitcase or something. What would you like yours to do?" Tony clarified. Toby thought about it for a moment before answering. It would have to be something easily concealed that could be activated quickly, of course.

"Can you make it a watch? Would that work?" he asked.

"It'll take some changes to the design, but I think I could make that work," Tony said with a grin. "Hey, perhaps I could get it to actually tell the time." Father and son shared a chuckle before Tony got to work.

Come the afternoon, the designs were complete and Tony, Toby and JARVIS were working on building the suit, with a little help from Dummy the robotic arm. When night fell, Toby and Tony wanted to stay up and work on the suit, but Pepper disagreed.

"You've still got school on Monday," she had said to Toby, who frowned and looked at his father for support.

"You'd better do as your mother says, Toby," he said, much to Toby's dismay. And so the first day came to an end.

* * *

><p>The next morning, Tony Stark walked into his workshop to find Toby poring over the designs. The finished helmet looked up at the boy, lifeless, as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.<p>

"You're up early," Tony said, surprising his son.

"Sorry dad, I'm just so excited!" Toby said.

"As well you should be, but don't forget that being Iron Man is a big responsibility. You need to keep people safe, as well as balancing your normal life with your life as a superhero. As well as being a billionaire, genius, playboy philanthropist like your father, you've still got school, and I don't want you messing up there," Tony warned his son.

"There's no chance of that happening," Toby said with a smug grin.

"I know, but your mum told me to say that. Now, let's play with dangerous machinery!" Both Toby and Tony cheered.

"You know," Toby said after a few minutes of working. "When I was looking at the designs for the armour I had an idea."

"What's that, son?" Tony asked as he twisted a screwdriver into the gauntlet on Toby's arm.

"Your Mark 7 suit had thrusters in the back which helped it go faster. Could we put those in this one?" he suggested.

"Probably not. If we add all that extra surface area it'll never fit in the watch, so you'll have to make a choice which feature you prefer," Tony answered.

"Hmm…" Toby muttered thoughtfully. "Maybe we'll leave the extra thrusters for the Mark II."

"Good idea." Tony agreed before continuing to work on the suit.

* * *

><p>Later that afternoon, Toby's mobile phone began to ring. He left his dad butting the final touches to his suit and stepped out of the room a moment before answering to hear Ben's voice.<p>

"Hey, Toby, you want to come round my place for a bit?" he asked. "Great Aunt May's here and she's cooking!"

"Sounds great, Ben, but I can't come around today, I'm afraid," Toby said.

"Why not?" Ben asked sadly.

"Because dad and I are building my new suit," Toby said.

"Your new suit?" Ben asked, excitement creeping into his voice. "You don't mean…?"

"I do," Toby said, allowing his own excitement to show. "I'm going to become Iron Man."

"Congratulations!" Ben said. "I wish that would happen to me."

"I might one day," Toby consoled his friend. "Anyway, I'd better go if I want to finish this thing tonight. See you at school!"

An hour later, Tony Stark was looking at a slightly smaller version of his suit, and from behind its shining blue eye-slits looked back his son. In that moment, as Tony looked at his son, he felt prouder than he ever had before.

"Well, son," he said, fighting back his emotions, "let's test this new suit of yours out." He then put on a suit of his own and stood side-by side with Toby.

Inside his new suit, Toby examined all the displays of his HUD and saw the face of his father in the bottom-right.

"Let's go!" he said excitedly. "Wait, how do we go?"

"JARVIS will do most of the thruster work himself, so all you need to do is steer," Tony replied.

"And how do I do that?"

"Well, I just lean in the direction I want to go, most of the time. You'll get used to it, and perhaps more importantly JARVIS will," Tony explained. "Now, let's fly." He squatted slightly and fired up his thrusters before hovering in the air and positioning himself for the door. "Meet you out there." He then leant forward and flew out the door, leaving Toby to struggle with his technology.

"How do I hover, again?" he asked himself.

"I recommend using 1% thruster capacity, sir," answered the voice of JARVIS.

"Ah, thanks, JARVIS," Toby said. "Wait, one percent?"

"Your thrusters are powerful tools, sir," JARVIS answered simply.

"OK, if you say so," Toby said, setting the thrust capacity to 1%.

"Would you like assistance during this flight, sir?" JARVIS offered.

"Yes," Toby said without a second thought. As he started to hover, he then angled himself forward, stabilising himself with the repulsors in his hands. Automatically, the thruster capacity in his lower left vision started to increase and he started moving forward.

"Woah!" he exclaimed as he started to rocket forward. "Slow down!" But he kept moving forward. As the glass wall approached up ahead, he tried desperately to turn away, but there was nowhere to run he closed his eyes as he crashed painlessly through the window and flew out into the sky. He pulled up immediately for fear of crashing into a building and started to hover. Tony came up beside him and opened up a communication channel.

"Should probably have taught you the best way out. If your mother asks, Thor came back," he said, eliciting a chuckle.

"What now?" Toby asked.

"Whatever you want! Just try to get a feel for the armour first; then perhaps we could have a race or two," Tony suggested.

"You'd win that easily," Toby said.

"You're probably right, but you could give me a good competition."

"If I can ever master this," Toby muttered.

"You'll never master it. Even I haven't mastered it, but with JARVIS' help you should be pretty good at this before we have to head back," Tony said. "I'm going to head back to the helipad and watch you for a while; just see where the suit takes you." And with that, Tony did as he said and watched his son from Stark Tower's 'S' shaped helipad.

"OK," Toby said to himself as he hovered shakily about New York City. He leant forward and started to rocket in that direction before attempting some turns. After about half an hour of flight, he opened a communication channel with his dad. "I'm getting pretty good at this!" he said happily.

"You can fly, yes…" Tony said. "But can you land?" Toby's face immediately went white.

"Well," he said nervously. "There's only one way to find out, I guess."

"Be careful. It's not as easy as it looks, and I don't want you smashing up my helipad," Tony warned. Toby nodded and headed toward the tower, and adequate flier now but far from the skill of his father. He still felt a fear akin to that which came with riding a rollercoaster, but that would wear off eventually. As he neared the tower, the airbrakes on the suit engaged, slowing him down along with the decrease in thruster power. He turned to hover above the helipad and looked down at his father, whose faceplate was raised so he could see Toby try to land.

"OK, JARVIS, decrease thruster power to 1%," Toby instructed. "Slowly," he added as an afterthought. He had found that, while 1% thruster power had been enough for him to hover a few inches off the ground, hovering elsewhere required a higher percentage and 1% brought him down quickly.

Toby lowered himself to the ground slowly, until his thrusters were at 1% capacity and he was hovering.

"Right. JARVIS, deactivate thrusters," he said.

"Right away, sir," JARVIS said, and with a jolt Toby hit the ground.

"Well done!" Tony said, but it wasn't over yet. Toby started to stumble before falling over backwards.

"Ouch," Toby said as he pushed himself back up. Once he stood, he lifted his faceplate to reveal a huge grin. "I think I'm ready!" he said.

"Not yet," Tony said with a serious tone. "You still have a lot of training to go, and I know just the partner for you to do it with."

"A partner?" Toby asked, an excited smile lighting up his face. "Who?"

"You'll find out after school tomorrow," Tony said with a wink. "In the meantime, what do you say to a race?"

"You're on," Toby said, lowering his faceplate with a metallic clink. "Last one to the Baxter Building is a rusty suit!" He then took off shakily, leaving his father to watch for a moment before snapping his own faceplate down and shooting after Toby. He would make a fine Iron Man – with training.

* * *

><p><strong>That's the end of chapter two! In the next chapter, we'll see who this mysterious partner is. It's possible you guys could guess, but for those of you who can't… well, I guess you'll just have to wait and see.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3: Superhero Training

**Son of Iron Man**

**Shout-Outs:**

**Thank you to ItsZokune for your character suggestions for the sons of Hulk. They may not appear in this chapter, but they will appear very soon. To the rest of you, let me assure you that these characters will be very interesting to read about. I'm excited for them having only read the profiles, and I'm the one writing this story.**

**To everyone:**

**Welcome back! Have you all had a good day? I have, but of course you guys don't care about that – you're here for the story. And so we begin!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Three: Superhero Training<strong>

The yellow school bus pulled up in front of Stark Tower and Toby jumped off.

"See you tomorrow, Ben!" he called back, and he saw the bespectacled boy waving at him through the window.

An elevator ride later and Toby was in the living room.

"Hey!" he called, swinging his backpack off and tossing it into a corner.

"Hey, Toby!" called back his parents. He immediately followed the voices to find his parents on the couch.

"So, ready for training?" he asked, raising his left wrist upon which the red-and-gold watch was strapped.

"Whenever you are," Tony said, standing up and walking across to his son. "Follow me."

Tony and Toby walked out onto the helipad, Tony having picked up his suit along the way. They stood there, waiting for someone whom Toby had no idea could be.

"Uh, are they coming tonight?" Toby asked sarcastically.

"They'll be here," Tony assured his son. They stood together in their suits, looking expectantly out over the city.

After a few minutes of silence, Toby began to hear rugged breathing. He watched the edge of the helipad, which was where he judged the sound to come from. A red hand suddenly came over the edge, gripping on and pulling up the rest of the body. A red-and-blue clad man flipped up over the edge and stood before Toby and Tony, his white 'eyes' taking up the majority of the web-patterned mask.

"Spider-Man?" Toby asked, looking up at his father, who shook his head.

"Spider-Boy."

After looking around to make sure no one else was watching, the masked figure removed the mask to reveal a bespectacled boy with mid-length, messy, dark hair and a muscular form. Toby recognised the face immediately.

"_Ben?!"_ he exclaimed.

"Yeah…" Ben admitted. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before, but the 'Spider-Man' who has been swinging around the city recently wasn't my dad."

"What?" Toby asked, surprised.

"Could we head inside?" Ben asked, replacing his mask and looking around as if someone was going to appear at any moment. "I'll explain to you there." Toby nodded and led his friend into the living room, Tony walking with them.

"How did you get here?" Toby asked once they were inside and on the couch, Ben's mask taken off once again.

"I climbed up the side of the building," Ben answered. "It's taller than it looks," he added.

"But the last time I saw you, you were on the bus," Toby said.

"I got off at the next stop, and then ran over here. Never mind that, though. Tony tells me you need a training partner," Ben replied. Toby wasn't ready to move on yet, however.

"You never told me you had powers!" he protested.

"My dad kept them secret in his day-to-day life, and so did I. I was born with the Spider-Gene, but dad made me keep it secret," Ben explained.

"I'm sorry, I still don't understand. Do you have all your dad's powers?"

"All of them. I even have my own web-shooters," Ben confirmed.

"So if I tried to throw something at you…"

"I'd dodge it."

"Then how come you're always the first out in dodgeball?" Toby asked. Ben sighed softly.

"I learned to control my powers; otherwise people would figure out that I had them," he answered.

"OK, I think I understand now," Toby said, trying to regain his cool composure.

"Good, then shall we begin?" Ben asked.

"Now?"

"Immediately," Ben said, putting his mask on.

"Dad, are you coming?" Toby asked his father, who was pouring himself a drink at the bar.

"No, I'll let you two try and figure out your own training style for now," Tony said. "Once you're ready to learn combat skills I'll join you, but for now I expect you just to practice mobility."

"OK, then," Toby said, turning to Ben and lowering his faceplate. "Let's move."

Toby followed Ben out onto the helipad, where he ran with surprising swiftness to the edge of the concrete and slipped over the edge. Toby hurried to the edge and looked over the rail, seeing the flash of red emitting a white stream from his wrist, which then attached to a nearby building. He began to swing through the air and Toby heard a 'woo!' filling the air. Before his friend could get away, Toby took off and sped toward his rapidly shrinking friend.

Ben's swinging velocity was no match for Toby's thrusters, and in moments they were side-by-side, Toby slowing down to stay level.

"You're pretty good at this for someone who only learned to fly yesterday," Ben remarked as they turned a tight corner.

"Me?" Toby asked incredulously. "You're amazing!"

"I've had practice," Ben said.

"But still, you have to calculate every swing perfectly. That has to be difficult," Toby persisted.

"You had to design, build and calibrate an Iron Man suit," Ben reasoned.

"I had help."

"So did I."

After a few minutes, Ben sighed loudly.

"What's up?" Toby asked.

"I'm bored," Ben replied. "Just swinging through the city is fun at first, but it just gets tedious after a while."

"I know, right? I'm just flying in a straight line," Toby agreed. "But then, I need the practice."

"You need practice in combat," Ben said, his mask hiding a mischievous smile.

"Dad said we should go back to him when we're ready for that," Toby recalled.

"I can teach you just as well as he can," Ben reasoned.

"I don't know…" Toby muttered.

"Come on! What would you rather do, fight some stupid old LMDs or stop an actual mugging?" Ben asked.

"Well…" Toby trailed off. He favoured the latter in truth, but he wasn't sure if he should disobey his father.

"You've got an invincible suit and I have my spider-sense. There will be no danger to either of us," Ben said, trying to convince Toby to join him. "Just use JARVIS to hack into a police frequency and we'll find a crime to stop," he instructed.

"Hacking into a police frequency?" Toby exclaimed. "I don't know about that…"

"Well, how else are we supposed to find out about crimes?" Ben reasoned.

"I don't know, perhaps a more legal way?"

"We're doing it to fight illegal activity. I think that cancels out the badness."

"My father wouldn't approve…"

"You're not your father. Do you want to learn or not?" Ben demanded. Toby was silent for a moment, considering the benefits and costs.

"JARVIS," he said finally, with a sigh, "get us into a police frequency."

"That's it!" Ben encouraged him.

"OK, I've got something; follow me," Toby said after listening in for a moment.

* * *

><p>"Please!" Sarah Shilling begged as she held her hands up. "Don't shoot!" She had been on her way home from school in Midtown when four men in black masks had shot out of an alleyway and dragged her into the darkness with them. One of the four was now emptying out her schoolbag. First out were her books, which clattered to the ground with a look of disgust from the mugger. Two of the others held her at gunpoint while the fourth man looked out onto the street to make sure they weren't being watched.<p>

"Useless books!" growled the mugger with Sarah's bag as yet more books fell out. Then they hit the jackpot when her purse fell out, jangling with the money that was inside. "Ah!" the man exclaimed, picking up the purse and discarding the bag. He opened it up to find 20 dollars in cash as well as a debit card. "How much is on this?" the mugger demanded.

"None of your business!" Sarah protested.

"Tell him, or we'll shoot," the left gunman demanded.

"Two hundred dollars!" she squealed. "Please don't kill me!"

"Oh, we-" the right gunman began, but he was cut off as they all heard a mechanical whir before the watchman collided with him, smoke pouring from his body.

"Put down the purse," demanded the newcomer as he pointed an open palm at the mugger who was holding Sarah's purse. The mugger stared with wide eyes at the red-and-gold, metal-covered man. Glowing blue eyes and a triangular chest piece lit up the darkness ahead of him.

"Iron Man!" he gasped, and the remaining gunman opened fire. The bullets bounced off the gold/titanium alloy before a humourless laugh was heard from within.

"I said…" – he blasted the gunman with a repulsor – "put down the purse." The mugger looked from Iron Man to the light at the end of the alleyway behind him and made a poor decision. He ran.

To his surprise, he didn't feel a burning repulsor blast hitting his back as he ran. The saving light grew closer and Iron Man grew further behind. He was almost there…

When a red-and-blue figure dropped down in front of him.

"Spider-Man?" he exclaimed. How many superheroes were here today?

"Spider-Boy," the boy corrected him, before a rapid punch to the face knocked him out.

Ben looked down at the unconscious mugger as Toby arrived next to him, carrying the other three over his shoulder. He sat the four muggers up against the wall before Ben used his webbing to stick them there. The two then walked back up the alley toward the still-cowering girl they had just saved. She was tall and blonde with green eyes, still in the clothes she had worn to school that day. Once there, Toby spoke first.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I-I think so…" the girl said as she shakily repacked her bag. "Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," Toby said as he knelt down to help her. "It's my duty." Ben stood by, letting his friend take all the credit. It was his first save, after all.

"I'm Sarah, by the way," the girl said. "Sarah Shilling."

"I know who you are, you're in my English class," Toby said. He then realised what he had done, but it was too late.

"I-I am?" Sarah asked. "Who are you?" Toby realised that his father never kept his identity secret, so neither would he. He lifted his faceplate. "Toby?" Sarah gasped.

"That's me," Toby said with a nod.

"Wow!" Sarah exclaimed. Then, after a moment of silence, she asked: "how can I repay you?"

"There's no need for that," Toby said with a smile. "Just knowing you're safe is enough." He then winked.

"Uh, Toby…" said Ben in a deliberately disguised voice. Toby looked up and saw where his friend was pointing. A white car with red-and-blue flashing lights had pulled up at the end of the alley.

"Ah," Toby said, lowering his faceplate. "We should be going. Call me sometime," he then added to Sarah before grabbing Ben and shooting upward.

Sarah watched her saviours go.

"I will," she whispered to herself as she looked at the little piece of paper Toby had put in her hand.

* * *

><p>"How irresponsible can you get?!" Tony Stark demanded as he waved a newspaper at his son the next morning. The headline, 'Iron Boy', lit up the front page. "You hacked a police frequency, tried to tackle a mugging <em>on your own<em> and then revealed your identity to a _Daily Bugle_ reporter!"

"I wasn't alone because Ben was there, and for the record, it was him who made me hack the police frequency," Toby protested. "And I didn't know she was a reporter."

"Regardless of who she was, you shouldn't have revealed your identity," Tony said.

"You did," Toby retaliated.

"I had learned to control the suit; you haven't. Do you have any idea how vulnerable you've just made yourself to attack?" Tony demanded.

"I kicked those muggers into the middle of next week! I don't think I have much to worry about," Toby reasoned.

"There are more dangerous enemies than muggers out there, Toby!" Tony scolded. "You have no idea what you're dealing with here!"

"Whatever, dad," Toby said, raising his hands. "I've got to get ready for school."

"Oh, no you don't," Tony stopped him. "You're not going to school today."

"What?" Toby asked.

"You need to learn how to control the suit before going outside again," Tony said. "You're grounded from everything that doesn't involve training, and that includes school."

"Can you even do that?" Toby asked.

"I don't know, but a repulsor blast says I can," Tony said. "You need to be ready for the dangers that are out there waiting for you."

"Who out there would want to hurt a 16-year old boy?" Toby asked. His father made to answer, but decided against it. Toby would learn soon enough.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, an ageing man was reading the newspaper.<p>

"Iron Boy, eh?" he said to himself in a smooth accent. "Dustin, come in here," he called to his son.

"Yes, father?" the teenager asked.

"Put on your best suit. We're going to pay this Iron Boy a visit."

* * *

><p><strong>That's all, folks! Who could this villainous villain be? Perhaps the son of one of Tony Stark's old rivals? Perhaps the only way we'll ever know is by waiting for the next chapter.<strong>

**Speaking of which, favourite and follow if you like this story and want to see the next chapter as soon as it goes up.**

**Until next time, true believers!**


	4. Chapter 4: Responsibility

**Son of Iron Man**

**I've been considering something ever since I decided to have more superheroes than just Toby in this story: the New Avengers. These are not the New Avengers that were in the comics, but a team led by Toby that includes Ben and anyone else they might find along the way. What do you guys think of that?**

**Anyway, let's begin with another great chapter! (I hope...)**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Four: Responsibility<strong>

The next day, Toby woke up in the morning to hear his mobile ringing. He sat up, yawned and looked at it. It was an unknown number. He answered the phone and put it up to his ear.

"Toby Stark, here," he said.

"Toby, it's Sarah," said a female voice on the other end of the phone. Toby raised a hand to his face and rubbed his eyes.

"Hey, Sarah," he said, deciding to see what she was going to say first.

"You said to call you," Sarah said. "This isn't a bad time, is it?"

"No, not at all," Toby lied, shaking the sleep away.

"Good. I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about yesterday," Sarah said.

"I'd like to ask you some questions, too," Toby said suddenly. "How much did you tell the police?"

"Not your name," Sarah said quickly. "I think people should know the name of a hero like you, but I know what the cops would do to you if I told them."

"But you still published an article about me," Toby said, his temperature rising.

"Not about you, about Iron Boy," Sarah corrected him. "I never mentioned your name. Your secret is safe with me."

"That's not enough. If there's an Iron Man flying around the place that isn't Tony Stark, then who would be the first person your mind naturally jumps to?" Toby demanded. The line was silent. "Well?"

"…you," Sarah muttered.

"Yes, me. Because of what you did, I can't go to school today. I have to stay safely at home, learning to control the suit."

"I-I'm sorry," Sarah said, emotion apparent in her voice.

"You should be. And for future reference, it's Iron MAN." He then went to hang up the phone.

"Wait!" Sarah pleaded.

"What?" Toby sighed.

"Don't you want me to… make it up to you?" Sarah asked suggestively. Her question was answered with silence from Toby. He had hung up.

* * *

><p>At breakfast that morning, Tony, Toby and Pepper sat around the table together. Tony had cooled down a little since yesterday, but an awkward tension hung around the table.<p>

"Sarah called this morning," Toby said eventually.

"Sarah?" Tony asked.

"The reporter," Toby clarified.

"Oh, right…" Tony said, going back to his breakfast.

"She said she hasn't told anyone my name," Toby continued.

"Have you read the article?" Tony questioned him.

"No… why?"

"Your name is mentioned at least three times."

"You're joking…" Toby said, horrified.

"I wish I was. But that's another reason for harder training," Tony replied.

"Oh, just you wait until I get my hands on her…" Toby said, his voice shaking slightly with anger.

"Revenge isn't the way," Tony said firmly. "You made the mistake of trusting her, but now you know not to. Just keep away from her. Understand?"

"Yeah," Toby muttered.

"Good," Tony said before draining his glass of orange juice. "Let's train."

* * *

><p>"These are LMDs," Tony said, gesturing to the four featureless droids that stood deactivated around the training room. "Life Model Decoys. They can take any form and adopt any fighting style. They won't kill you like the originals would, but you'll be hard-pushed to defeat them."<p>

"I'm ready," Toby said, snapping his faceplate down. The blue HUD switched out for a red battle one.

"OK, we'll start with something simple. Just one LMD in the form of Loki," Tony said.

"Loki?" Toby repeated.

"Loki. He's a good starting place, with ranged and melee attacks," Tony confirmed. One of the LMDs suddenly became the Norse god of mischief and lunged at Toby with his sceptre.

"Woah!" Toby exclaimed as he dodged to the side and jetted upward. He began to aim at the LMD, but it shot out a blast of magic which he only just dodged. He then managed to hit Loki with a repulsor blast, which knocked him back but didn't defeat him. As the LMD took aim again, two pod-rocket capsules opened up on Toby's shoulder and fired off a round of missiles. A few were shot down, but the rest hit the LMD square-on and exploded the droid.

But it was a brief respite.

Two more LMD-Lokis leapt into the air and tackled Toby, pulling him to the ground while a third raised his sceptre and jammed it toward the ARC reactor in Toby's suit. In a split-second decision, Toby activated his thrusters and dodged out of the way, dragging one of the LMDs into the place he had been. One LMD destroyed the other, while the third was still on Toby's boot. He bent down in the air and placed his hands on the LMD's horned helmet before activating repulsors in each. The LMD collapsed to the ground without a head.

The final LMD was destroyed by a laser.

"Well done!" Tony said, applauding. "Next time, try a unibeam blast."

"Unibeam?" Toby repeated.

"You can overwhelm your reactor and send an energy blast out of it. Very powerful, but it's a drain on the suit," Tony explained. Toby nodded. Suddenly, his HUD began to shake as he staggered back. He looked at his father in shock. He had just shot his own son with a repulsor.

"What was that for?" Toby demanded, but his father's only response was a second repulsor blast. He was left with no choice but to blast his father back. Tony Stark was blasted backward, but by activating his thrusters as he fell he was able to rocket back forward. He reached out and grabbed his son before twisting in midair and throwing him into a wall.

"OK, then," Toby said to himself before standing back up. He placed his hands together and hit his father with a double repulsor blast, which forced him to stumble backward. Toby ran forward and went to punch Tony, but the latter raised a swift hand and blocked the attack before punching Toby back. As he fell backward, Toby remembered what his father had told him. Diverting all power to the reactor, he waited a moment before loosing the blast at his father, who fell to the ground with a huge hole in his chest. As Tony Stark died, his armour disappeared to reveal the featureless body of an LMD.

"Good work!" said the real Tony as he emerged from the observation deck that was hidden in the walls.

"Thanks," Toby beamed, raising his faceplate. "You are the real Tony Stark, right?"

"Of course I am; look, no armour," Tony replied. "Well, it's clear that your combat skills are already pretty well developed. You still need to learn some techniques before taking on any real villains, but I feel fine letting you return to school tomorrow. Just promise me you'll keep the watch on at all times."

"Promise," Toby said as his suit folded in on itself and retreated into the form of a watch. He glanced at it briefly and saw that it was only around 3:00pm. "What now?"

"Your school just ended, so Ben will probably be around soon. That's enough training for today. Just promise you won't go out and hack the police again," Tony said half-jokingly.

"I promise." But Toby had no intention of going to find Ben. He was going to have a word with Sarah about responsibility.

* * *

><p>Sarah Shilling felt a buzz in her jacket on the way home. She produced her mobile phone from her pocket and looked at the screen. It was Toby Stark.<p>

"Hey, Toby," she said as she answered the phone. "Ready for that apology now?" As she spoke, she produced some lipstick from her pocket and began to apply it.

"Meet me outside Stark Tower," Toby said. His voice sounded urgent.

"Sure thing," Sarah said before hanging up the phone and adjusting her route.

A few minutes later, Sarah was across the street from Stark Tower. She could see Toby across the road, waiting for her with crossed arms. She quickly crossed the road and met him.

"Hey there," she said, looking into Toby's blue eyes as she spoke.

"Hi," Toby said impatiently. "Follow me."

"Gladly," Sarah said. Toby immediately started striding down the road, Sarah in tow and struggling to keep up. "Could you slow down a little?" she asked.

"No," Toby snapped. Suddenly, he turned right into an alleyway. Sarah realised it was the same one she had been mugged in.

"Ooh," she said. "How romantic."

"A dark alleyway?" Toby asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Our dark alleyway. Just you and me," Sarah purred. She suddenly flashed back to her meeting with the head of the _Daily Bugle, _J. Jonah Jameson.

"_I want more details on this… Iron Boy," Jameson said in his gruff voice, unchanged by age._

"_I'll get you all the details you want, sir," Sarah replied. She was never called up for big articles like this. Her first piece on Toby had been life-changing._

"_You better. Get as close to him as possible. I want every detail," Jameson said._

It didn't get closer than this.

"OK, this is not why I called you here," Toby said quickly as he dodged Sarah's advances. "I want to talk to you about your article."

"Good, wasn't it?" Sarah asked, stepping closer to Toby.

"You lied to me," Toby said, stepping away.

"It was just a teensy little lie," Sarah said, holding up her finger and thumb in close proximity to show just how small the lie was.

"You told the world that I'm the new Iron Man," Toby protested. "It doesn't get much bigger than that."

"I know. I'm sorry," Sarah said, hanging her head. She then raised it again, a longing look in her eye. "But let me make it up to you." Toby sighed.

"Fine," he said. "Close your eyes."

"No way, I want to see every moment of this," Sarah said before leaning forward. A mechanical whiz sounded and she found herself kissing the cold, metal faceplate of an Iron Man suit.

"Mind where your mouth takes you," Toby said before jetting off upward and leaving Sarah to ponder the double meanings of what he had said.

* * *

><p>"I hope you stayed out of trouble today," Pepper said to Toby later that evening. "Your father didn't work you too hard, did he?"<p>

"Oh – no, not at all," Toby said. "It was easy, actually."

"That's my boy," Pepper said fondly. "The Avengers returned while you were out, so your father's gone to talk to them in private."

"Oh, alright," Toby said. "I'm just going to head up to my room for a bit; I have some thinking to do."

"OK, dinner will be on the table in half an hour," Pepper said.

In his room, Toby activated his suit and removed the helmet before looking at it. There was a lipstick stain on the mouth, making the suit appear like a woman. Toby chuckled before wiping off the stain. After today, he was going to stay far away from Sarah. If only that would work…

* * *

><p><strong>Ooh, that dastardly reporter! I somehow doubt this is the last we'll see of her…<strong>

**Two updates in one day! My, you are lucky. **

**Well, in the next chapter I plan to introduce some of the characters that you all have been suggesting. On that topic, it's not too late to introduce some more characters if any of you readers out there have any good ideas. I've got kids for Iron Man, Spider-Man, Lupos, Thor and the Hulk so far, with Captain America planned but not in detail. I have a name for Captain America's son, but no details as yet other than the fact that he inherits half-powered super-soldier serum and the shield, so if any of you clever little readers out there have any ideas I'd be thrilled to hear them.**

**Until next time, true believers!**


	5. Chapter 5: Plain Old Toby Stark

**Son of Iron Man**

**I'm back again! Wow, over 100 views! Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, followed or favourited the story so far. May there be many more of you to come!**

**A quick reminder to those of you who enjoy this story: you can follow and/or favourite the story either as you review or simply by pressing the follow/fav button in the top right of the page. Even if you don't want to review, you can anonymously follow the story at any time to get updates when I add a new chapter.**

**Also, I love talking to people who enjoy reading my stories, so feel free to drop me a PM and I'll try to answer as soon as I can. Rude messages will be ignored.**

**With that said, I invite you to join Toby on his first day back at school after a day of intensive training. How will the other students react to the news that plain old Toby Stark is in fact Iron Man? How will Toby deal with it? When will I stop asking questions and let you read the story?**

**Right now!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Five: Plain Old Toby Stark<strong>

Toby awoke that morning with anxiety gripping his heart. Today he would return to school, but he wondered how his fellow students would react to Sarah's article. With disbelief, he hoped, but things never worked out so easily in life. He showered and cleaned his teeth before throwing on some clothes and heading down to breakfast, after which he packed his bag for school and started to head toward the elevator.

"Have a good day, son," Tony called. "Have you got your watch?"

"Yeah," Toby called back. "See you guys later!" And with that, he stepped out into the world.

On the bus, Toby sat beside Ben, ignoring everyone else on the vehicle.

"Did you see who wrote the article?" Ben asked. Toby nodded solemnly.

"Sarah Shilling," he answered.

"The one you saved?" Ben exclaimed. We had agreed to call all of our saves mine in public, since Ben's identity was still secret and he wanted it to stay that way.

"The very same," Toby nodded.

"That witch! What are you going to do?" Ben asked.

"I've already done it," Toby answered.

"What did you do?" Ben asked, a slight hint of dread in his voice

"Nothing bad!" Toby said quickly. "I just reminded her what responsibility is."

"Because you're really responsible," Ben chuckled. "Anyway, how did she respond?"

"She tried to kiss me," Toby replied.

"You're joking, right?" Ben asked disbelievingly.

"Nope," Toby said with a roguish grin.

"So, the message got across then?" Ben said sarcastically.

"If only," Toby sighed. "Something tells me this isn't the end of her Iron Man reporting."

* * *

><p>The bus pulled up in front of the school and Ben and Toby walked to their tutor room, ignoring the students who called to Toby in the hallway. Once there, they were greeted by everyone in the room immediately trying to talk to him.<p>

"Settle down, class!" the tutor said. The class at large quieted down, but when Ben and Toby sat down their immediate neighbours immediately started to whisper to Toby.

"Hey, Toby," said Adrian, the boy who sat behind Toby. His father was a renowned physicist, and Adrian was pretty smart himself. Ben and Toby sometime hung around with him after school, as well as his younger brother, Ty.

"What is it, Adrian?" Toby snapped.

"I- sorry, man," Adrian stuttered. "I just wanted to ask if you're available after school tonight."

"Oh…" Toby said, feeling bad for snapping at Adrian. "Sorry. Yes, I'm available," he said, but Ben looked at him pointedly and mouthed the word 'training'. "Actually, no, I just remembered I've got a ton of homework," he added.

"OK," Adrian said dejectedly.

* * *

><p>Their first lesson was physics, in which Toby and Ben were partners. While the teacher droned on about nuclear fission – or as some of the less intelligent kids in the class called it: 'nuclear fishing' – Adrian listened with rapt attention. Ben was smart. Toby was smarter. But when it came to physics, Adrian was a genius.<p>

"Now," the teacher, Mrs. Peach, said to the class, "who can tell me which element is used most often in nuclear fission?" Adrian's hand flew up immediately. "Yes, Mr. Banner?"

"Uranium-235, miss," he said.

"Correct! And you got the correct isotope. Well done, Mr. Banner," Mrs. Peach congratulated Adrian, who smiled to himself. A number of the other students sighed, tired of being shown up by him. Ben and Toby exchanged amused smiles over how capable these people were of getting annoyed by the simplest of things.

"Well, today we're going to do a practical about half-life," the teacher continued, ignoring the muttering in the room. "Each pair will take 100 dice and roll them all at once, then count the sixes each time. Remove the sixes and re-roll all the others, and repeat. The instructions are on this sheet, which…" she looked at who was closest to her, "Toby will hand out." With a sigh, Toby stood up, took the sheets and handed them out, starting on the first row before making his way toward the back.

Exactly where Sarah was.

To Toby's surprise, she didn't say anything – just stared at him as he passed.

Once Toby was sat back at his desk, he found that Ben had already collected a box of dice and poured them out over the table.

"OK, you take half and I'll take half," Ben said, sweeping up about half of the dice.

"I don't see how this is going to be helpful," Toby stated as he collected his own dice. "I mean, I see the science behind it, but at the end of the day we're just going to spend an hour rolling dice."

"True, and most of the people in this class probably don't actually understand the science," Ben agreed. He then looked like he was going to say something else, but someone else spoke first.

"Hey, Toby," they said. Toby turned and saw Sarah standing behind them.

"Hello, how may I tell you to go away today?" Toby asked, eliciting a chuckle from Ben.

"Well, that's not very nice," Sarah said. "My partner's not here today, so I was hoping I could join you two."

"No," said both Toby and Ben at once.

"Mr. Stark," said Mrs. Peach, "I hope you're not going to leave Miss Shilling on her own."

"Of course not, miss," Toby said, "she can go with someone else."

"Mr. Stark, I was under the impression that you were more chivalrous than this," Mrs. Peach said. Toby sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Uh, miss," Ben spoke up. "That article about Toby – the one that's pretty much ruined this day and probably more after that – Sarah wrote it."

"Ah…" Mrs. Peach said. She didn't seem to be aware of the fact. "Well then… Adrian, can you let Sarah join you?" Adrian looked up from his dice.

"Sure," he said, though he didn't seem completely convinced.

"There, problem solved," Mrs. Peach said before moving on to help another group. Sarah shot Ben a cold look before storming off to Adrian.

"Poor guy," Ben commented as he watched her go.

"Thanks for that," Toby said.

"No problem," Ben replied. The rest of the dice-throwing lesson passed without further incident, as well as Toby's next lesson, Maths.

* * *

><p>Come break time, Ben and Toby were sat outside at a table, trying to escape the public. Many passers-by had already tried to engage in conversation with Toby, but he had shut them out. Adrian suddenly came to sit by them.<p>

"That Sarah is a nightmare, huh?" he asked as he tucked his bag under the table.

"You have no idea," Toby mumbled.

"Have you been receiving much attention from that article?" Adrian continued.

"Unfortunately, yes," Toby said.

"It won't last," Adrian assured him.

"I don't know about that. Superheroes get a lot of publicity, and since people know I'm Iron Man I'll get that publicity. This article's effect will wear off, yes, but there will be more," Toby replied.

"Can Sarah not be convinced to be stop?" Adrian asked.

"It wouldn't matter if she could; she's not the only reporter out there. I just wish she stuck to more conventional methods…"

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind," Toby said.

"Well, look on the bright side," Ben chipped in as he saw desperation creep into Toby's facial expressions.

"What bright side?"

"Girls love superheroes."

* * *

><p>Toby's next lesson was PE. After changing into his sports kit in the changing rooms, he headed to the hall with Ben and found their teacher wielding a dodgeball and a whistle.<p>

"Today," he announced, "we're going to play a game of dodgeball. Captains will be…" he looked around. "Jonathan Rodgers" – a muscular boy with blond hair and blue eyes stood up and walked over to the teacher's right – "and Emily Frost." A beautiful blonde girl stood up and made her way through the crowd of students, who eagerly moved out of her way. As always she wore her red-tinted sunglasses which hid her eyes, but she didn't need to reveal them for all the boys in the school to be mad for her. Her father had left the family when she was young – taking the family name with him – but everyone knew that her mother was Emma Frost, the famous X-man. Emily had certainly inherited her good looks – she was widely recognised as the most attractive girl in school.

"OK, we've got our captains," the teacher announced. "Now we need some teams. Jolly, Emily, if you will." Jolly, the nickname of Jonathan, stepped forward first.

"Jack," he said, calling up his best friend in a move that shocked no one. Emily then stepped forward, and all the boys in the room listened out for their names.

"Toby," she said. The whole class turned to stare at Toby with jealousy in their eyes – even the girls, who knew that to be picked by Emily was to be popular. Surprised, Toby stood up and picked his way through the seated students, feeling the eyes of everyone boring into him as he went. "Hey," Emily greeted him softly. Toby returned the gesture with a numb smile before standing behind her, forming the basis of the line. He glanced at Ben and saw him mouth the phrase 'I told you so'. He couldn't help but grin.

The rest of the picking went unsurprisingly, with Emily picking all the girls and Jolly picking the boys. Soon, only Ben and Adrian were left. Neither Jolly nor Emily wanted either of them, but Emily stepped forward nonetheless. She studied the two of them, trying to discern the weakest.

"Ben," she said, leaving Adrian with Jolly. It was highly unfair that Ben was often one of the last to be picked, but Toby was the only one who knew of his true skill and he often purposely threw the match to hide his powers. The only reason he was picked over Adrian was that the latter had a habit of passing out when his heart-rate got too high.

Sure enough, once the game began, Ben was one of the first out with a dodgeball to the chest. That left Toby as the only boy in Emily's team. He dodged the incoming balls with ease and knocked out a few members of Jolly's team. He did notice that whenever a ball approached him a girl conveniently appeared in front of him to take the hit, but that annoyed him more than anything; before long, only Toby and Emily were left. He realised that Adrian was looking stressed, and threw a perfect ball at him that knocked him out of the game. Adrian gave him a grateful thumbs-up before retreating to the sidelines.

All the girls on the bench watched Toby as he ducked and dived, catching the odd ball and throwing plenty. Suddenly, Emily took a dodgeball to the leg and retreated, leaving Toby alone to deal with the four remaining members of Jolly's team. He dodged two balls in a row before picking one up and throwing it at Jolly. It hit him on the shoulder as he tried to dodge, eliciting a cheer from Toby's team. He had just taken out Jolly Rodgers, one of the toughest kids in school.

The remaining three on Jolly's team threw a co-ordinated attack of three balls at Toby – two of which bounced off each other harmless and the third being caught by Toby. Only two remained. Toby jumped over a misguided shot before catching one in mid-air and throwing it back at thrower of the first ball, knocking both out at once.

Toby's bench cheered, and Emily herself ran onto the court and hugged him. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment.

* * *

><p>After school, Toby returned home and greeted his parents.<p>

"Hey," he called as he removed his backpack. Tony immediately walked into the room.

"How was your day?" he asked anxiously.

"It was better than I expected," Toby said as he remembered dodgeball.

"Good to hear it," Tony said with a smile. "Ready for some training?"

"Always," Toby said, holding up his left arm and the watch upon it.

"Then follow me."

* * *

><p><strong>Well, isn't that nice? Toby's life is all going better than he expected, but for how long, I wonder? Sarah's still out there, and she's not likely to lose Toby to Emily or anyone else without a fight. How far will Jameson make her go? And let us not forget the unknown villain who's hiding out there. With all these unanswered questions burned into your brain, I feel somewhat cruel to announce that the next chapter will have nothing to do with Toby! Because guess what, true believers? We're heading to Asgard!<strong>

**And yes, I did call Steve Rodgers' son Jolly Rodgers. Yes, that is what the pirate flag is called (but without the 's').**


	6. Chapter 6: Into Asgard

**Son of Iron Man**

**Some of you may be disappointed with chapter's distinct lack of Toby. Rest assured, though, it is important to the story and some of your burning questions may even be answered. For one thing, we're going to check in on Sarah Shilling at the Daily Bugle. Ooh!**

**For now, let us journey… into Asgard!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Six: Into Asgard<strong>

The two brothers walked side-by-side, hefting their great swords over their shoulders with little concern.

"Another mighty battle well fought, brother!" exclaimed the larger of the two, slapping his younger brother on the back.

"Indeed! Father will be proud to hear our tale when he returns from Midgard," the younger agreed.

"Magni, my brother, the day has not yet ended," said the other. "And surely a feast awaits us upon our return to the city."

"Indeed not, Mothi," Magni agreed. "I could devour an entire boar after today's deeds."

"I wonder whether the lady Freyja would be there," Mothi thought aloud.

"She very rarely journeys from Folkvang," Magni reminded his brother.

"Then one day I shall journey there myself to take her hand," Mothi said with a certainty that should have surprised his brother. Magni, however, smiled and shook his head.

"You keep dreaming that same dream, brother. I, meanwhile, will be doing all I can to ensure it is I who inherits father's hammer," he said.

"And you are one to talk of foolish dreams," Mothi chuckled. "For everyone this side of Helheim knows it is I who will inherit Mjolnir."

"Do not make me laugh, brother! You are strong, but you are arrogant," Magni said.

"Perhaps it is so," Mothi agreed. "I propose that we meet in the arena to determine who is the worthier son. What say you?"

"I accept your challenge, brother. When shall this battle take place?"

"Immediately upon our return," Mothi said. Magni shook his brother's hand, agreeing to the arrangement.

* * *

><p>And so it came to be that all of Asgard gathered around the arena to watch the sons of Thor do battle once again. Both wore sleeveless armour which allowed their muscles to move freely. Neither were otherwise armed.<p>

It began.

Magni immediately flew forward and launched a fist at his brother, who caught it and flipped him over his shoulder. As he fell, Magni saw Mothi follow up with a diving attack. He rolled out of the way as Mothi's fist collided with the ground where Magni's head had been. The latter flipped to his feet, kicking his brother as he did so. He followed it up with a charging head butt, which sent Mothi sprawling backward.

"ENOUGH!" shouted a deep and commanding voice. Mothi and Magni looked upward saw Thor, their father looking down disapprovingly at them. He leapt down into the arena and picked Mothi up by the scruff of the neck. "Is this another of your battles to prove who is the more worthy?"

"Yes, father," the brothers said, hanging their heads in shame.

"This must stop," Thor said firmly. "Nay, it will stop."

"Yes, father," Mothi and Magni said in unison.

"I do not think you mean what you say. This will happen again, will it not?"

"…yes, father."

"At this moment, I see neither of you as being worthy of Mjolnir," Thor said. Mothi and Magni's heads fell further in deeper shame. "But thankfully, I know a tried and tested way to improve both of your attitudes. It worked on me," he continued.

"What do you mean?" Mothi asked.

"I am sending you to Midgard," Thor said. "Without your swords."

"But without our swords we are powerless!" Magni exclaimed.

"Precisely," Thor said flatly. "You will learn to become worthy or you will never return."

"But father…"

"Silence!" Thor snapped. "Hand me your swords." Mothi and Magni shared a sad look before handing away the sources of their power. "Follow me," Thor said, "we are going to the Bifrost."

* * *

><p><strong>OK, I admit it. I lied to all of you! This chapter will have some Toby in it, but it's meant to focus more on Mothi and Magni. Now, I wonder where Mothi and Magni will so conveniently turn up?<strong>

* * *

><p>When Toby Stark entered the living room, he found two strangers on the couch.<p>

"Uh…" he mumbled, "hi."

"Hello, son of Tony!" the two boys boomed in unison. They were muscular, and one seemed to be Toby's age while the other was a few years older.

"What are you, uh… doing here?" Toby asked. His finger strayed to the button which activated the suit, but he didn't press it just yet.

"Your father has taken us in during our hour of need," said the older boy.

"OK…"

"We are of Asgard," added the other.

"Oh, like Thor," Toby said, tensing a little more.

"Indeed! We are his sons," the elder said. Toby relaxed.

"Ah!" he sighed. "What are your names?"

"I am Mothi," said the older brother.

"And I am Magni," added the younger.

"I'm Toby," Toby said. "Why are you staying with us?" Mothi and Magni then told the tale of how they had been banished to Earth, or Midgard as they called it, by their father.

"Father brought us here and engaged in a strongly-worded argument with your father," explained Mothi.

"And he agreed to let us stay here," Magni finished.

"Do you have any idea how long you'll be here?" Toby asked, seated now on the couch opposite them.

"Until we are worthy," Magni answered cryptically.

"O…K…," Toby said. "Are you going to school here?"

"School?" echoed the Asgardian brothers.

"Yeah, school. You've never heard of school?" Mothi and Magni both shook their heads. "Huh. Well, it's basically a place you go to learn things."

"We have no such place on Asgard," Magni said.

"Quick question: what shape is the Earth?" Toby asked, catching the brothers off guard.

"Flat," Mothi said with a smug grin. Both of them seemed entirely convinced that it was the right answer.

"Wow…" was all Toby could say. "You guys really need to go to school."

"We shall speak of it with your father," Magni said. "This sounds like an interesting place."

"Oh, it's… interesting," Toby nodded. "Excuse me," he then added, standing up and going to find his dad.

"You are excused," he heard as he left.

* * *

><p>"Thor's sons?!" Toby demanded. His father stood before him, rubbing his neck stressfully. "You let them live here?"<p>

"I didn't have any choice," Tony protested. "They need somewhere to stay, and Thor is remarkably hard to dissuade."

"Aren't they going to get in the way of our training?"

"No…" Tony said, though a hint of doubt crept into his voice. "No," he added more confidently.

"And what about Ben? How can we discuss anything to do with heroism with those two around?"

"They can be trusted."

"Can they? They wouldn't know how to keep a secret."

"Well, you'll just have to find a new meeting place," Tony suggested. "I'm sorry, Toby, but there's no going back now." Toby gave up the argument; he knew his father was right.

* * *

><p>Sarah sighed to herself as she approached the <em>Daily Bugle <em>building. For the third day in a row, she was returning to Jameson's office without so much as a photograph. She knew he wouldn't be pleased with her lack of results. But it wasn't her fault; Toby just refused to talk to her.

As the elevator rushed up toward her floor, Sarah tried to think of what she was going to tell Jameson. A ding interrupted her thoughts and she regretfully exited the elevator with her empty folder. She knocked on Jameson's glass door and he let her in, gesturing to her that she should take a seat.

"Well?" he asked expectantly.

"I don't have anything for you today, Mr. Jameson, but…"

"Nothing?" Jameson interrupted her. "You don't have a single word?"

"Well, he hasn't been that active recently," Sarah said as an excuse.

"Are you any closer to him on a personal level?" Jameson asked, trying hard to control his temper.

"He's proving… difficult," Sarah said.

"Difficult," Jameson repeated, a statement more than a question.

"Yes, difficult."

"How difficult?"

"He won't have anything to do with me. When I tried to kiss him…"

"You tried to kiss him?"

"Yes, but he didn't accept it."

"Of course he didn't; you weren't close to him – but I admire your commitment to this case," Jameson said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "You've got until Saturday to get me a scoop on this kid, or I'm handing the case over to someone more capable."

"Thank you, sir," Sarah said gratefully. She picked up her folder and turned to leave. "I won't let you down."

"You better not."

* * *

><p>"So, what's the plan, pops?" asked Dustin as his father pored over numerous documents and newspaper articles.<p>

"Well, Dustin," the man answered, "you're going to put on this suit and visit young Toby."

"And by visit, you mean…?"

"Destroy." He held up a black-and-red helmet that had glowing red eye-slits and put it on his son's head. The rest of the suit unfolded from the helmet, similar in colour with a glowing red chest piece. Underneath the chest piece was a single logo:

_Hammer Industries._

* * *

><p><strong>OK, this is a short one. I just thought I'd take the opportunity to add some new players to the field and establish a few plots for the next couple of chapters. How will Mothi and Magni adapt to a mortal life on Earth? Will Sarah get her big scoop on Toby? Will Toby survive his encounter with Dustin?<strong>

**Oh, great, now you have more questions to await the answer for!**

**See you next time!**


	7. Chapter 7: Under the Hammer

**Son of Iron Man**

**At this point, I think it's only fair to warn you guys that Toby has no guarantee of surviving. One of my biggest issues when I read a story like this is that I know plot-armour protects the main character. And in book form, you can feel that there's at least the rest of the book to go. Not on the internet. Here, I'm telling you now that if I leave a chapter in a perilous position for Toby, there's no guarantee that he gets out of it. There, that should make reading this more interesting.**

**And on a lighter note, let's see what happens in this chapter…**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Seven: Under the Hammer<strong>

The next day, Toby arrived home from school to be greeted by Mothi and Magni.

"Hey!" he called.

"Hello, Friend Stark!" said the brothers. He waved at them before heading to his bedroom. He didn't have any training today, so he decided to see what Ben and Adrian were doing. However, when he took out his phone and sat on the bed, he saw that he had a text message. From Sarah.

'_Hey, could I speak to you?_' it read. He sighed and tapped 'reply'.

'_What is it this time?_' he typed and sent. He began to wonder how much longer he could ignore her. After a minute or two, the phone buzzed again.

'_Are you alone? If so, call me,_' the message said. Toby opened his bedroom door, checked there was no one out there and closed it again before calling her.

"What do you want?" he asked as soon as she picked up.

"Well, hello to you, too," Sarah said, affronted.

"Just get to the point."

"Fine," Sarah said, and Toby heard a sigh over the line. "I wanted to meet up with you."

"To interview me, you mean?"

"Yes," Sarah said, and Toby was somewhat impressed by her honesty. Nevertheless, he still responded with:

"Goodbye!"

"Wait!" Sarah exclaimed. Toby sighed and put the phone back to his ear.

"I'm listening," he said.

"I really need this. If I don't get an article about you before Saturday, Jameson says he'll fire me," Sarah begged.

"Good, then there will be one less reporter to worry about," Toby quipped.

"This isn't funny! I could lose my job!"

"You're at high school," Toby reminded her. "You've got plenty of careers ahead of you."

"But I love this one! Please, I just want to do a straight-up interview. And I'll be kind. Most reporters at the _Bugle_ – the ones that would replace me – will try to turn you into some kind of menace. I'll describe you as who you are: a hero," Sarah reasoned. Toby considered it. He had seen what the _Bugle_ did to Spider-Man, both as Peter and Ben. And if Sarah turned out to be like them anyway, well, he wasn't losing anything for trying.

"Fine," he said. "One piece. Where should we meet?"

"Great!" Sarah exclaimed, the relief clear in her voice. "Meet me at that coffee place round the corner from your place."

"I'll be there, Toby said finally before ending the call. He immediately went downstairs and threw on a jacket.

"Where are you going?" asked Magni as he searched the fridge.

"Out. If you see my dad, tell him I've gone to Ben's," Toby told him. It was probably best that Tony didn't know for the time being.

* * *

><p>Toby sat across the little table from Sarah, sipping gently on a cup of coffee as she ran through her notes.<p>

"OK, I'm just going to ask you a few questions," she said.

"Fire away," Toby said.

"How long have you been Iron Man?" Sarah asked.

"Since the day I saved you," Toby answered. Sarah immediately started scribbling some new notes.

"OK, thanks. Do you know any other superheroes?"

"None," Toby said.

"You were with Spider-Man the day you saved me," Sarah reminded him.

"Good memory," Toby said. "Yes, I know Spider-Man." He decided it was best not to reveal his identity.

"And you live in the sometimes-base of the Avengers?"

"Oh yeah, I know the Avengers, too."

"Interesting," Sarah said, scribbling notes furiously. "There are rumours that you're the first of a new generation of heroes. Can you confirm this?" Toby thought instantly of Ben.

"No, I have no idea," he replied. The interview continued throughout the afternoon, until Toby looked out of a window and noticed it was getting dark. "Have you got all you need? It's getting dark."

"Yes, this'll do me for now. Thanks for your time," Sarah said, standing up and putting her notes away in a bag. "Until next time?" she asked hopefully.

"Don't push it," Toby said half-jokingly. Together, they exited the building and Toby started to head toward Stark Tower. When he turned, he saw that Sarah was following him, despite that fact that her house was the other way.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"I just wanted to apologise for that first article," Sarah said solemnly.

"You're not going to try to kiss me again, are you?" Toby asked jokingly, his hand going to the watch.

"No," Sarah giggled. "But seriously, I'm sorry the article offended you. If I'd known that it would do that-"

"It didn't offend me," Toby assured her, "I was just trying to keep my identity secret when you told the whole world."

"But you showed _me_ your identity," Sarah said.

"I trusted you." Sarah suddenly turned away from Toby and he heard faint sobbing.

"Hey," he said softly. "Calm down."

"I'm sorry, Toby!" she burst out, and she turned to him with tears in her eyes. Toby was shocked by the sudden outburst of emotion. "I didn't mean to betray your trust like that!"

"It's… it's OK…" Toby said in what he hoped was a soothing voice. Sarah didn't reply, but she started sobbing on his shoulder. He patted her back while looking wide-eyed around the street for help from any corner.

It came from an unexpected source.

Toby heard the familiar sound of thrusters before cold metal grabbed his shoulder and he felt himself flying upward. Sarah looked up, still sniffling, as Toby was carried away.

He looked up and saw what looked like an Iron Man suit, and wondered if it was his father. But it couldn't be – where the gold on his faceplate would be was a red face with red, glowing eyes. The rest of the suit was black.

"Who are you?" Toby demanded.

"You wouldn't know me if I told you," replied a cold, calculating voice. "But your dad knows mine." His threatening tone put Toby on edge. Something told him this guy wasn't friendly.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Dustin Hammer," replied his attacker. "But you can call me the Black Knight."

"Dustin Hammer…" Toby replied. "As in the son of Justin Hammer of Hammer Industries?"

"The very same."

"Look, I know our dads are rivals, but…"

"Rivals? Ha! You don't know how deep the rift between our families goes," Dustin laughed coldly.

"Oh, I see how it is," Toby said, his hand creeping toward his watch. "There's one thing you need to know about us Starks…"

"And that is?" Dustin enquired.

"No one rips off our armour." With that, Toby pressed the button on his watch and his suit unfolded around him. He then boosted his thrusters to 100% and blasted Dustin upward, catching him by surprise. He took hold of the other boy and performed a vertical u-turn in the air, rocketing toward the ground. "Nice try, Dustin," he said as he let go and slowed himself down, letting Dustin fall at supersonic speed and crash into the ground. A crater appeared where Dustin made contact, and the few New Yorkers who were on their way home in the area scattered, screaming. Toby landed beside him and pointed both repulsors toward his attacker, as well as both his rocket pods. He could hear the Black Knight suit recalibrating as Dustin recovered from the impact.

"Why are you here?" he demanded. Dustin was silent. Toby repeated the question, wondering if Dustin had hit the ground too hard and how good the rip-off suit's life support system was. Still Dustin was silent. As Toby began to panic, however, the suit's thrusters activated and Dustin shot forward, tripping Toby up. He fell to the ground as Dustin looped upward and hit him with a repulsor blast. Just as Toby tried to get up, he was hit by another blast which knocked him down.

"Energy levels are dropping, sir," JARVIS said.

"I can see that, JARVIS!" Toby snapped. He tried to push himself up again, but got knocked down. "Argh!" he growled in annoyance.

"Can't take it, Stark?" Dustin jeered. Toby suddenly wrapped his arm around his chest and loosed a blind shot in the direction of his voice. A scream told him he'd hit his target, and he took the opportunity to get up. He fired off a round of missiles, most of which missed but a handful of which hit their target, knocking him out of the sky.

Toby leapt into the air and flew toward Dustin with his fists out, landing a double punch. He blasted Dustin with repulsors repeatedly.

"Sir, power is running low," JARVIS informed Toby.

"Better put an end to this, then," he said, but in the split second during which he was distracted Dustin hit him in the head with a red repulsor. He flipped backward as Dustin escaped, but it appeared that he too was suffering.

"This isn't over, Stark!" he promised before beating a hasty retreat. Toby considered chasing him, but knew the suit's power levels wouldn't stand it. Reluctantly, he removed the suit and looked around. Further down the street he saw Sarah, who had recorded the whole fight on her phone.

"Oh, great," he mumbled to himself as Sarah saved the video and put her phone away before running up to him.

"You don't mind if I post that on the website, do you?" she asked, a pleading tone to her voice.

"Just go ahead," Toby replied uncaringly. He was more concerned about why Dustin Hammer had just attacked him in the middle of the street. "Look, I've got to go. See you tomorrow." Sarah waved as Toby ran to the Tower.

* * *

><p>"Dustin Hammer?" Tony asked disbelievingly after his son had told him about the attack.<p>

"The son of Justin Hammer, your rival," Toby said, nodding.

"I know who he is," Tony said. "What I want to know is where he got that armour from."

"Me, too," Toby agreed.

"Years ago, before you were born, Justin Hammer tried to copy the Iron Man suit – that's how the War Machine armour was created," Tony revealed.

"You mean the one Rhodey wears?" Toby asked.

"The very same. Anyway, Rhodey and I beat him, Whiplash and all his drones and sent them both off to jail. When Hammer got out he seemed to have turned a new page, but it seems from what you've said that he didn't stop working on ripping off my armour."

"And now he's succeeded?"

"Looks like it. You need to be careful out there, Toby – these guys aren't messing around. Stick by Ben when you go outside, and make sure your suit is always charged up," Tony warned his son.

"Oh, I almost ran out of power today," Toby said.

"Then we'll put in a new power chip right now," Tony said, moving toward the elevator. This was the day he had been dreading, but also the one he had planned for…

Tomorrow, he would tell his son to do something that could save his life. Until then, he would keep a sharp eye upon him. This had been a real eye-opener for Toby, too: the dangers out there were very real, and he had only just survived an encounter with a kid. What would happen if a full-fledged villain attacked… well, that remained to be seen.

* * *

><p>"<strong>Finally!" I hear you cry in jubilation, "a life-or-death piece of action!"<strong>

**But don't let yourselves get carried away by your appreciation for this attempt on Toby's life. Next time, it might not be so easy…**

**And what about Sarah? Is she as bad as she first seemed? I'm not just asking myself these questions, guys, you're allowed to give your thoughts and opinions if you want. Are **_**you **_**buying Sarah's sob story, or do you suspect she's still hiding something? I haven't even written what comes next, so you know just as well as I do.**

**Well, join us next time to find out what Tony is about to suggest to Toby that is so important I had to put it off until the next chapter.**

**Until next time, true believers!**

**P.S. Three chapters in one day! It s a new personal record!**


	8. Chapter 8: Taking the Initiative

**Son of Iron Man**

**Over a hundred readers! Thanks to everyone who has read the story this far; without you I wouldn't be writing this. And thank you most of all to those loyal readers among you who have read every chapter and followed the story.**

**I'm back, and more importantly, so is Toby. **

**Just as a reminder, guys, I'm still open to character suggestions. They can have powers, or they can be regular people. After this chapter, you'll be seeing just why I need some more characters for the story. I can of course come up with them myself, but it might be nice for some of you to see your own creations here. They don't necessarily have to be children of superheroes, either. **

**At any rate, let's begin.**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Eight: Taking the Initiative.<strong>

At breakfast on Saturday morning, Toby sat around the table with Tony, Pepper, Mothi and Magni. He was reading a copy of the _Daily Bugle_, looking to see if Sarah had published her article yet. She had published both. On the front page was a scene from the video she had taken, which showed the moment where Toby was on the floor with an arm wrapped around his chest, shooting Dustin out of the sky. '_Knight of Iron' _was the title.

"What are you reading there?" Tony asked.

"The article about yesterday," Toby answered.

"I'll take a look at it after you're done," Tony said, and Toby nodded absently before continuing to read the article.

_**Knight of Iron**_

_**By Sarah Shilling**_

_Last night, New York City became the site of a battle between iron giants. Toby Stark, the Invincible Iron Man, was yesterday attacked by a mysterious figure known only as the Black Knight. He wore what appeared to be modified Iron Man armour, but our metal hero made short work of him, saving this reporter's life in the progress._

The rest of the article was similarly warm; Sarah had apparently stuck to her promise… for now. Toby then flipped over to the interview, _'A Date with Toby Stark'_. Despite the title, she seemed to have stuck to what Toby had said in the interview. After finishing his reading, he handed the paper over to his dad and focused on finishing his breakfast.

"Friend Stark," said Mothi to Tony, who looked up from the paper.

"What is it, Mothi?"

"Today I shall go forth to the mighty halls of 'Pizza Hut' and apply for what you call a 'job'," Mothi said proudly.

"Pizza Hut," Tony repeated, trying hard to disguise a smirk.

"It is an establishment where mortals go to feast," Mothi explained.

"I know what Pizza Hut is," Tony said. "I just can't imagine the son of Thor becoming a pizza guy."

"You do not think I am worthy?" Mothi demanded. "Am I not responsible enough for the distribution of pizza, in your eyes?" Toby placed a hand over his mouth to hide the chuckling as Magni started to stick up for his brother.

"On our homeworld, we were celebrated warriors, Mothi and I. I shall tell you now that there is no worthier person on this world for the esteemed position of pizza distribution officer," he said.

"Mothi, if you want to get a job, then do it," Pepper intervened as she saw her husband begin to lose his composure.

"Thank you, lady Pepper," Mothi said. Tony shook his head with a chuckle and returned to his reading.

"What is this?" Tony demanded after a few minutes.

"What?" Toby asked.

"This." Tony showed Toby the interview page.

"Oh, that…"

"Oh, that," Tony repeated. "What exactly is this?"

"An interview," Toby said with a hint of sarcasm.

"And what is it doing in the newspaper?"

"Well, Sarah and I were talking…"

"I thought I told you to stay away from her."

"I can handle her. Anyway, we were talking and she said something that got me thinking…" Toby then explained the conversation they had.

"Hmm," Tony hummed when he was finished. He looked from his son to the newspaper, then back again. "Luckily, it seems your trust has paid off this time," he conceded. "But you won't be so lucky next time."

"I know," Toby agreed. Then, in an attempt to change the subject, he added: "so, what are we going to do about this Black Knight guy?"

"Glad you asked," Tony said, standing up. "Follow me."

* * *

><p>Toby found himself in one of his father's labs while Tony searched for something.<p>

"What are you doing?" Toby asked.

"Searching for…" Tony said, seemingly struck by an idea and rummaging in his pocket, "this." He held up what Toby recognised as a holographic chip and plugged it into the desk. Toby watched as a holographic screen opened up above the desk.

"Pay close attention, son," Tony said. Then the screen loaded the data from the chip. Toby looked at the screen for a moment, looking first at the title and then the various texts and looped videos.

"This is…" Toby breathed. He looked at the title again, long and hard.

"The New Avengers," Tony finished. "Your new team."

"There are only two people on here, though…" Toby pointed out. One video was of a red-and-blue figure swinging on a web, while the other was a metal man hovering shakily above New York. Toby and Ben.

"For now, yes," Tony agreed. "But you're going to build up the team one by one."

"How?" Toby asked. "It's not like everyone goes around shouting 'I'm a superhero'."

"Start with the sons and daughters of superheroes," Tony suggested. "What about that Adrian kid?"

"Bruce's son? I don't think so. He's a clever kid and a good friend, but he just passes out when he gets angry. Something tells me he missed out on the Hulk Gene," Toby said.

"OK, well what about his brother, Ty?"

"Ty? He doesn't even have Bruce's smarts," Toby answered. Tony looked like he was going to say something, but he stopped himself. "What is it, dad?" Toby prompted.

"There's something you need to know about Ty," he said. "But you can't tell anyone."

"I won't," Toby promised.

"Good," Tony said. "Ty Banner is a clone."

"A clone?" Toby repeated, shocked. "Of who?"

"General Thaddeus Ross," Tony revealed.

"The Red Hulk?"

"The very same. He took part in an experimental S.H.I.E.L.D. cloning project, and Ty was the result. He was adopted by the Banners at age two when S.H.I.E.L.D. funding ran out for the project." Tony explained. "I don't think even he knows, so don't tell him. He surely knows about his hulk form by now, but he thinks he inherited it."

"Sounds good," Toby said. "Does Ben know about this?"

"Peter is showing him today," Tony answered.

"Why are you telling us this now?" Toby asked. "It doesn't seem brilliantly planned out yet. Must be in the early stages, still."

"We weren't going to tell you about it until we'd found you more team mates," Tony revealed. "But after yesterday…"

"I sent Dustin off crying yesterday!" Toby protested.

"Then he's going to come back with a bigger sword."

"In which case I'll get a bigger shield," Toby said.

"Exactly! The New Avengers _are _your bigger shield. Do you understand why I want you to do this?"

"Sure," Toby agreed. "Do I get to lead it?"

"If that's what it takes to get you on board."

"I'm in."

* * *

><p>Toby and Ben stood outside the door of the apartment, having a last-minute debate as to how they would go about recruiting Ty. Ben was wearing his Spider-Boy costume, not willing to reveal his identity yet.<p>

"I say we just take him out for ice cream and…"

"Ice cream?" Ben interrupted Toby. "How old do you think he is? Ty is only a year younger than us."

"I know, but who doesn't like ice cream?" Toby said.

"Fair enough, but we should do it somewhere less public anyway. Isn't there somewhere at the tower that we could take him?" Ben asked. Toby thought about it for a moment.

"There's my room, I guess."

"What about your dad's workshop; the one where he showed you the presentation?" Ben suggested.

"Oh, that's a good idea," Toby agreed. He then pressed the doorbell and both boys waited for a moment before Adrian answered the door.

"Toby? What are you doing here? And why is Spider-Man with you?" he asked. "Come in!" he then offered.

"Thanks, but we're here for Ty," Toby said,

"And Ty alone," Ben clarified.

"Oh…" Adrian said, a hint of disappointment in his voice. "Sure, I'll go get him."

A moment later, Adrian returned with Ty.

"What's up?" the younger, blond boy asked.

"Could we speak to you?" Toby requested.

"What about?" Toby and Ben looked first to each other, and then to Adrian, who stood behind his younger brother.

"Could we tell you somewhere private?" Ben asked. Ty looked from Adrian back to Ben and Toby.

"Sure," he said with a shrug of the shoulders. "Could you tell dad I'll be out?" he then asked Adrian.

"Sure, see you later," Adrian said. "Don't forget your coat."

"Thanks," Ty said, taking the coat his brother was handing to him and slipping it on.

"Sorry you can't come with us, Adrian," Ben said, "but it's something we need to discuss alone."

"No, I understand," Adrian said as Ty stepped out of the door. "Be back by dinner," he added to his brother, who nodded before departing with Ben and Toby. Meanwhile, he was left behind wondering who it was that Toby was with.

* * *

><p>Toby, Ben and Ty sat at Tony's desk with the holographic screen active.<p>

"Before I load up this holographic chip, you have to promise us both that you'll tell no one about what we're going to show you," Toby said, holding the chip in between his thumb and forefinger.

"I promise," Ty said impatiently. "What is it?"

"You'll see," Toby replied. He then loaded up the chip, and the presentation appeared on the screen. Ty stared at it for a moment while Ben and Toby watched him expectantly.

"Interesting…" he said after a while. Toby and Ben waited for him to say more, but he just stared at the screen.

"Well?" Toby prompted.

"Well what?" Ty asked. Comprehension then dawned in his blue eyes, but he didn't reply as Ben and Toby expected. "Good that you felt able to show me this, but I can't help you here."

"We think you can," Ben said after he and Toby shared a look.

"How exactly do you think I can help?" Ty demanded. Toby, growing impatient already, decided to drop any pretence.

"We know about your Hulk form," he revealed.

"What? I think you're confusing me with my dad," Ty said.

"Nope. The last we checked, your dad isn't red." Ty seemed to think carefully before speaking again.

"How do you know all this?" he asked, apparently deciding to embrace the truth.

"Two smartest boys in the school right here," Toby said smugly.

"You're not counting my brother, and anyway no amount of intelligence can account for that knowledge," Ty reasoned.

"It depends on which meaning of 'intelligence' you use," Toby said. "I can't tell you how we know this, just that we do, and a lot else besides."

"The question," Ben inputted, "is will you join us?"

"Maybe," Ty said. "But there's something I need to know first. Who are you?" he asked Ben.

"I'm Spider-Boy," he replied.

"I mean under the mask."

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" Toby interrupted. "Who's under the mask isn't important. What's important is whether you're ready to help us or not." Ty thought about it.

"Hmm…" he hummed thoughtfully. He looked at the presentation again. "Who else is in on this?"

"No one as yet," Toby replied. "We only found out about it ourselves this morning."

"Seems poorly planned and ill-conceived," Ty commented. Ben and Toby exchanged worried glances in the silence that followed. "My favourite kind of plan. I'm in." Both Toby and Ben sighed in relief.

"Great. I'll add your details to the chip," Toby said, unplugging said chip and pocketing it.

"What now?" Ty asked, looking from Ben to Toby.

"Take this," Ben said, handing him what seemed like an ordinary coin.

"What is?" Ty asked, looking closely at it.

"A communication device. When you're needed, it'll start flashing," Ben explained.

"And if I can't see it?" Ty enquired.

"It starts to beep."

"And if I accidentally try to spend it?"

"It's a Great British Pound coin. No shop you visit should accept it."

"And if they do?"

"Then we'll give you a new one and whoever has the coin won't know what it means anyway."

"Perhaps I was wrong when I called this plan ill-conceived," Ty said thoughtfully.

"Well, that's all we needed to discuss with you for now," Toby interjected. "For now, you can go home. Remember, though, don't tell anyone about this."

"Not even Adrian?"

"Not even Adrian."

"Fine. Well, I'll see you next time the world is in danger, then," Ty said, putting on his coat and walking out.

Once they were sure Ty was gone, Ben removed his mask.

"That went well," he said.

"Surprisingly so," Toby agreed.

"What's next for us, then?" Ben asked.

"I don't know. We'll have to see what opportunities present themselves," Toby said.

"And hope Dustin takes longer to regroup than we do," Ben added, to which Toby nodded.

* * *

><p>"Son, you failed me yesterday," said Justin Hammer. He sat in his usual comfy chair while his son knelt before him on the rough carpet.<p>

"I know, father," Dustin said sadly.

"Not only did you fail me, but you failed yourself," Justin added. "If you can't kill Toby Stark when he's only just learning to control the suit, what hope do you have of killing him once he's mastered it?"

"Give me one last chance, father," Dustin pleaded. "I won't disappoint you again."

"You'd better not," Justin said. "Or I'll find someone else to do your job for you."

"I understand."

"Now hit the training room. I want you to be ready for your next encounter with Stark."

"Yes, father," Dustin said solemnly before leaving the room. Next time, he _would _kill Toby. Now it was personal.

* * *

><p><strong>My longest chapter yet! Anyway, I'm now taking suggestions for villains as well as heroes. I plan to have more than just Dustin in this story, but I'm struggling for any more villains, so if you have any ideas I'd be glad to hear them. Thanks in advance to any of you who can come up with something.<strong>

**Speaking of villains, the next chapter will introduce a new one. I'm undecided as yet how much of the chapter it takes up, but it may even end up being a whole chapter long. **

**Also, leave a review if you want a bit of comedy in a future chapter where Mothi son of Thor is working his new job as a pizza guy. I don't know whether it would be too boring for the story or not, so that's why I'm asking.**

**Anyway, see you next time!**


	9. Chapter 9: A Girl in the City

**Son of Iron Man**

**Before we get into the story, I'd like to thank xxx-benedictbrothersfan-xxx for your regular reviews. You're one of the people who keep me writing.**

**Another of those people is Johnwolf234, and if any of you guys out there happen to like stories about wolves then he's one of the best at writing them. Go check out some of his stories, but be sure to pay attention to any warnings he may give at any point.**

**Also, if any of you happen to notice any mistakes in my writing I'd be grateful to hear them. Don't worry, I won't think you're being nitpicky.**

**Anyway, mushy thanks aside, this chapter actually takes place in the past, at first, but it crawls forward to the present as it goes on. I'll leave you guys to guess where each stage in time begins. Now we begin!**

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter Nine: A Girl in the City<strong>

The wooden chair was hard underneath the girl, but she didn't care. She was with her beloved boyfriend, sipping on a hot cup of coffee. Her legs were crossed as she stared into his deep blue eyes – a gesture which was lovingly returned by the boy.

"This coffee is perfect," she commented.

"As are you, my sweet Katie," replied Leo, her boyfriend. Katie Forde took a moment to examine her life, and concluded that it was perfect. She had a happy family, a loving boyfriend and she was doing well in school. It really couldn't be any better.

When the date was over, Leo and Katie went their separate ways with a quick kiss and a goodbye. Katie began navigating the crowds of New York on her way home. Today had been a good day.

What Katie didn't notice was that the shadows themselves were following her. In the shadow of the crowds lurked a creature that blended in perfectly. It slithered in the darkness, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

And strike it did.

Katie had a habit of ducking into alleyways on her way home, taking the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. As yet her luck had held out, but even if someone did decide to pick on the helpless little girl she had an ace up her sleeve: karate lessons.

But nothing could prepare her for the attacker in the shadows. It was waiting to strike.

And strike it did.

But not today.

The attacker in the shadows followed her for the next few days; always waiting, always watching. Katie didn't know anything about it until it was too late. It happened on a Tuesday, when Katie was walking home from school.

A shadow suddenly leapt up in front of her from the dark alley floor. It was small, and shone in the slight ray of sun that made it to the ground.

"What the-?" she gasped. But it was too late even for surprise. The creature of the shadows sent out tendrils which wrapped around Katie. She felt a terrible pain her head as the smooth black creature ran itself all across her body, coating her in a skin-tight layer of the ooze it was made from. Before long, it had entirely covered her from head to toe, with two large white shapes either side of the head that served as eyes. Katie could see a darkened version of the alley from within her living prison, but all she could hear were the thoughts of someone other than herself. They spoke in a cold, hissing voice, filling her mind – overpowering it. She clawed at her head, trying to pull the ooze off – but to no avail. It was stuck. Before long, Katie realised she didn't even want to remove the ooze, and subsequently she stopped trying. Under the instruction of the voices in her head, she leapt from one wall of the alley to the opposite, repeating the action and climbing higher and higher until eventually she was on the roof of a three-storey row of houses.

"_Go to the bank," _hissed the voice, and Katie happily agreed. She ran across the rooftops, jumping when the situation demanded it and landing with steady feet. She felt blood pumping through her already athletic body as the black slime added yet more power to her. After a ten-minute journey that should have lasted thirty, she found herself standing in front of the bank nearest to her previous position.

"_Enter," _the creature commanded her. Katie looked at the impenetrably locked door of the bank and did the unthinkable.

She asked a question of the creature.

"_How?" _she asked.

"_The window," _was the simple response. Katie's hand instinctively went to the wall, and she found it stuck. Curious, she placed another hand above the first, then moved the first above the second. She couldn't believe it: she was climbing the wall. Shortly, she found a window that had foolishly been left open and climbed inside. The bank was cold and draughty, presumable because of the open window. But she daren't shut it: it was her escape route.

"_Humansss!" _the voice in her head hissed. She immediately stopped moving, the black coating on her body enabling her to hide in the shadows. Sure enough, a couple of security guards were down below, swinging their torches about randomly. Once or twice the roving beams of light almost caught her, but in that time where they didn't spot her she hatched a plan. Her instincts told her to stretch an arm out toward the ceiling and flex her two central fingers, and when she did a stretch of organic webbing flew out toward where she was pointing. She pulled herself across with newfound strength and hung upside down on the ceiling, watching the two guards; observing their route of patrol. When both guards were next to each other, she descended on a web line and silently grabbed them both by the scruff of the neck before zipping back up to the roof and webbing them upside down, being sure to web up their mouths so they wouldn't scream. Certain that there were no more guards, Katie dropped to the floor. Under instruction from the voice, Katie crossed toward the door which led to the vaults. Finding it locked, she used her new strength to kick it down.

"Let's see," she said to herself as she looked at all the vaults in the walls either side of her.

"Hey! You!" called out a voice. Katie turned around and saw the single guard at the end of the corridor. "Get away from there!"

"_Kill!" _the voice screamed. But some of Katie's kindness shone through, and she only webbed the man to the wall. He could only watch as she started to crack open vaults and take the money from inside before beating a hasty retreat.

* * *

><p>After the robbery, the shadow creature had left Katie with very little memory of the encounter. She read a newspaper the next day about a bank robbery and reacted as anyone would – with shock – but little did she know that she was the perpetrator. The night before was a blur to her, but she assumed it was a weird dream. The dream had ended with her handing lots of money to a man in a metal suit. She questioned why she would have had such a dream, but she realised it was probably her brain trying to break the pressure of being so kind all the time. More than understandable, really.<p>

The next time the creature revealed itself, it took Katie out for another heist. This time, it was a different bank, but she took the money to the same person. After a few more comings and goings, Katie began to notice a correlation between her blackouts and the robberies. Could it be her? Surely not?

One weekend Katie was on another date with Leo when the conversation turned to the recent rash of bank robberies in the city.

"Some crazy stuff, huh? I hope they catch whoever did it," Leo said. By this point Katie was vaguely aware of her role, but she didn't yet wish to accept it.

"Yeah," she agreed absently.

"Yeah?" Leo echoed. "That's all you can say?"

"I agreed with you, didn't I?" Katie snapped. Leo seemed to struggle with something internally, something that had been troubling him for a while.

"What's wrong with you?" he blurted.

"What?" Katie demanded.

"You haven't been yourself recently. You've been cold, mean even," Leo replied. "You're not the girl I love any more."

"Don't you dare say that!" Katie hissed.

"That's exactly what I'm talking about!" Leo stated. "I'm sorry, I have to go." He stood up and left without another word, leaving Katie to ponder her outburst and its cause.

* * *

><p>Things were looking desperate for Katie. She had driven her love away; her family were growing ever more distant. The creature kept visiting her in the night, and the crime spread. The police were baffled and so was Katie. But there was one thing she knew: she would find out what had gotten into her – she just wasn't sure how.<p>

Then one day the answer came to her in a newspaper.

The article she read told her of the debut of Toby Stark as Iron Man, and she figured that if anyone could help her it would be the superhero son of a genius. So she tracked down Toby Stark.

"Hey, Toby!" she called out in the middle of the street the next day. The harassed-looking teen turned toward the sound of her voice and saw that she was behind her.

"Who are you?" he demanded, clearly stressed. "What do you want?"

"I want answers," Katie replied. "And I think you can give them to me."

"Well, I am very clever," Toby said. "But you still haven't answered my first question."

"I'm Katie Forde," she replied. "Now you answer my question."

"And that is?"

"What's happening to me?" Katie demanded. Toby looked at her as if she was mad, and she didn't blame her: she was questioning it herself.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly.

"Have you been reading the newspaper?" she asked back. A mysterious look came into his eye.

"If this is about the whole Iron Boy thing I assure you it's all rubbish generated by the media," he said, making to walk away.

"It's not," Katie said, stopping him. "I need your help."

"Go on then, what with?" he sighed.

"Could we discuss it somewhere private?" Katie asked.

"Did Sarah put you up to this?" Toby suddenly demanded.

"Sarah? Who's Sarah?" Katie asked, genuine confusion in her voice. Toby studied her for a tense moment.

"Follow me," he said.

* * *

><p>Katie was in Toby's room, sat on the bed. The boy was reading the various newspaper clippings she had brought with her at his desk.<p>

"Bank robberies," he thought aloud. "All in a different place; all by the same perpetrator. But no one knows who…"

"I know," Katie interrupted him. "I know who it was."

"You've seen beneath that mask?" Toby asked. Katie was silent for a moment.

"I was beneath that mask," she admitted. Toby looked at her for a moment.

"You?" he asked, a surprised tone in his voice.

"In a way."

"In a way?" Toby demanded. "What do you mean?"

"It's me, but it's not… me. Look at the pictures; look at the costume."

"I'm looking."

"It's not a costume – it's a living creature. It relies on a symbiotic relationship with a host: me. What I want to know is what it is."

"Well then I can't help there. Mysterious biological occurrences aren't my specialty," Toby said.

"You can't help?" Katie asked.

"I'm afraid not. But perhaps given time…"

"You won't help me?" Katie interrupted.

"I would, but I don't know…"

"Clearly," Katie said, standing up and shouldering her bag.

"You're leaving?" Toby asked.

"You can't help me," Katie replied before leaving. Toby Stark, her one hope, had failed her.

* * *

><p>With her last hope gone, Katie now felt entirely alone in the world. But somehow she sensed it wasn't over yet. Far from it. So it came as little surprise when a boy around Toby's age came to her about a week later.<p>

"I hear Toby Stark has failed you," said a voice. Katie whirled about and saw the boy. He wore a suit and tie, clearly under the impression he was there on business. "I'm Dustin Hammer," he said with a smile.

"Katie Forde," Katie replied.

"I know who you are," Dustin said. "I hear you're having some trouble with a symbiote?"

"How do you know that?"

"I have my ways. How much do you know of your little friend?"

"Not a lot," Katie admitted. Dustin looked pityingly at her.

"Then it's a good job I'm here," the boy said. Katie shivered as she looked out from the bridge, the cool night air only one of two causes.

"What do you know?" she asked.

"More than you," Dustin replied.

"How can I know that for sure?" she demanded.

"You will, in due time," he said. "For now, I can tell you one piece of information that will act as a promise of what's to come."

"And that is?"

"Its name." Katie observed Dustin for a moment, trying to gauge how trustworthy he was.

"What is it?" she asked before making any decision.

"It's gone by a lot of names in its time," Dustin said. "But it's primarily called Venom."

"How can I learn more about this?" Katie asked after a moment of silent contemplation.

"Come with me," Dustin answered, holding out a hand. Katie examined the boy yet again, weighing up her chances. In the end she realised she had nothing to lose. She took his hand.

* * *

><p><strong>The end! Ah, so it <strong>_**was **_**a whole chapter after all! For those of you who didn't pick it up on the way, the beginning of this chapter was in the past. It crept into the first week of Toby being Iron Man at about the time she spoke to him and then the time she met Dustin was after the battle. So now we're right back up to the present. Do you guys feel as sorry for Katie as I do? Because let me tell you, it was difficult to write a whole chapter about pretty much ruining a girl's life. But it's necessary for the story, so that's what I did. Do not think less of me!**

**In the next chapter we'll be back with Toby and the beginnings of the New Avengers. Possibly a pizza-man-Mothi moment, too, if I get any requests for it before I reach that point in writing.**

**Until next time, true believers!**


	10. Temporary Placeholder

Hey there guys. I'm afraid this is just a temporary note to explain why I haven't written any more of the story. I've got some personal issues going on right now which have pretty much destroyed any desire to write. I don't know how long it will be before I start writing, but right now I'm too upset to carry on. I hope you understand.

Have a good day.


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